“Some of the public disgust with politics and politicians stemmed from political scandals and revelations of past government misdeeds”

I like how Freeman spoke about the scandals that took place with political figures in this chapter. He reference when Wilbur Mills of the House of Representatives was stopped in a car by police and was in the presence of a stripper. Political scandals sometimes get took out of contex, so what if they cheat on their spouse or significant others. I know its a tool that political parties used against each other to discredit or get them put out of office. I feel that your personal life should not matter especially if your doing your job well.

“But Ford destroyed any chance he had of improving public perception of the political class— and any likelihood of getting elected to the presidency in his own right— when just a month into office he gave Nixon a full pardon for any offenses he might have committed as president. Ford’s approval rating plunged, as many people believed that he had made a sordid deal with the former president, or at least perpetuated a different set of rules for political insiders than for everyone else.”

The public’s reaction to Ford’s actions relates to the heightening of entitlement for equality that individualism brings about. “A different set of rules” for any class of people was not to be excused.  Scrutiny and ever apparent transparency of the government and leaders lead to humanization of them. The disillusionment of moral authority was a result of not only incidences coming to light, but also individualistic public opinion.

Walmart is an American multinational retail corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. This company is the world’s second largest public corporation according to the Fortune Global 500 list in 2013. Furthermore, it is the biggest private employer in this world with over two million employees and is the largest retatiler in the world. Walmart remains a family-owned business as the company controlled by the Walton family who owns a 48 percent stake in Walmart.

However, Walmart has become involved in numerous lawsuits for a significant reasons such as class action lawsuits in which employees are suing unpaid wages and denying to offer job based on race.

Nevertheless, we need to know what kind of products Walmart offers for American consumers………

“As with the anti-ERA movement, the anti-gay rights movement gained national attention through its embrace by an effective female leader, in this case pop singer Anita Bryant, who was the national spokesperson for the Florida orange juice industry.  She called her organization “Save our Children.”

In the late 1970’s, a county in Florida passed  civil legislation ordinance that prohibited discrimination on the basis of “affectional or sexual preferences.”  This was a huge step towards equal civil rights between people among different sexual or affectional preferences.  However, Miss Anita Bryant strongly opposed this legislation and tried to have this legislation appealed through national media coverage and campaigning.  Her argument was that homosexuality was morally and ethically wrong, specifically portrayed them as potential child molesters.  These are the kind of hurdles America has had to overcome to pass equal rights for people with different sexual preferences.  During this time period, homosexuals are seen as sinful and morally wrong citizens; however America definitely does not have that view today and the legislation passed helped America step forward.

“That year, the lead in fighting inflation moved from the White House to the Federal Reserve System. Paul Volcker, whom Carter appointed chairman of the Fed, made stopping inflation his main goal, even if it took inducing a recession to achieve it.” p.329

This is similar in many regards to what is going on currently with Mr. Bernanke. He is putting these measures into place that will seemingly make things worse before they get better. Paul Volcker is important because he is the person behind the policies that were aimed at restricting the money supply (with intentions on lowering inflation). It is a major underlying reason why interest rates skyrocketed leading in turn to the decline in consumer spending. Volcker’s policies along with other contributing factors led to a huge amount of layoffs and plant closings in the automobile and steel industries.

“Carter’s political symbolism and rhetoric suggested that the days of American imperial ascendancy were over, and that it was probably for the best.”

pg 327

Carter came into office in large part because he was different from the standard American presidential candidate. Carter’s lack of experience in Washington helped separate him from the rest of the candidates. To many American’s he seemed like one of them. Although his attitude and image appealed to American’s at the time, Carter was ultimately unable to satisfy the American people. He did little to solve any problems the country faced. Freeman argues that this period of America is characterized by an expansion of a “hollowed out” Democracy. Carter talked about peace, hired many women and African Americans, and proposed a new direction for America, but ultimately changed very little. The rhetoric was there, but the results were not. American’s had to look further for the changes they wanted to see.

(1) President Ford

(2) “…when just a month into office he gave Nixon a full pardon for any offense he might have commited as president. Ford’s approval rating plunged, as many people believed that he had made a sordid deal with the former president, or at least perpetuated a different set of rules for political insiders than for everyone else.” (pg.321)

(3) President Ford would take over Nixon’s role as president after the infamous Watergate Scandal. President Ford was seen as a new hope for the country, especially his family whom the American public seemed to appreciate. This however was not the case a outlined by Freeman in the text. The 1970s was a time marked of many economic problems and high distrust with the government. Nixon was pardoned by Ford, which showed the American public that their is no one that they can truly trust. The public felt as if they were on an inferior level to the government and that they were not serving them. The distrust was at an all time high. The economy was suffering as well, with very high unemployment and high inflation. It looked like the beginning of another recession soon to come. Ford was unable to make many strides through this period, something Freeman makes sure the reader is aware of as his presidency was a tumultuous struggle.

David Shmidt

1) New York City

2) Page 334 — American Empire : New York City had provided a national model for an expansive, liberal notion of government in the decades after World War II. Government services included a large, free university system, a large public hospital system; a large mass transit system;  public housing projects with over a half million residents; and a large, relatively generous welfare system.

3) This quote and institution or organization is relevant to Freeman’s view of the current situation. During this period, there were many organizations, presidents, plans that weren’t effective and as a result, everything was stagnant. This bright spot about New York City as a whole shows that things will progress later on and “Stagnation” will be gone eventually. There was pressure to lower the presence of government in everyday life and it is basically where the direction will sort of be headed.

“Congress rejected almost all of Ford’s proposals” page 323

There was a raise in inflation and a increase in unemployment, the government did not know how to deal with such problem. The price of goods were on an increase and the jobs were on a decrease. This type of problem has never occur in the past and the government’s Keynesian solutions were not going to work.  The economy is in trouble and the conflicts between the Democratic majorities Congress and the Republican President does not solve the economic issues. The President Ford want to tackle the inflation issue first and the Congress, House and Senate, want to tackle the unemployment issue first.  So the Congress would reject most of Ford’s proposals and Ford would not work with the Congress to come up with a solution that both parties agree on. So the economy suffers from the tension between the two branches of the government. Americans sees this problem and their trust in the government falls every year. The percentage of eligible  voters who actually vote also falls by every election. The government’s inability to fix the economy and  scandals from politicians really push people to lose trust in the government as well as being political actively.